Schools across the country have been reeling from state funding cuts sparked by the recession, and things are no different in Ohio. And in Yellow Springs, where school income tax receipts are forecasted to drop 30 percent this year, school leaders are grappling with ways to address the shortfall.

Call him crazy, but Greene County Public Library Director Karl Colón believes that the library ought to serve the taxpayers who support it. When the people said in a 2005 survey that they wanted more youth programs, better communication and a bigger collection, the Yellow Springs library started console game madness for teens, gussied up its newsletter and Web site and started ordering more books.

The health of the local economy is tied not only to the village’s largest employers, but also to the many smaller ones that together contribute substantially to Village coffers. With the many entrepreneurs educated at Antioch College, Yellow Springs has a rich legacy of fostering start-ups, and that small-business diversity is a critical part of the stability of the local economy, according to Village Manager Mark Cundiff.

The Vernay Foundation, which funded the building of the library, the Community Children’s Center, the Friends Care Community and many other projects in the village, officially dissolved on Dec. 31, 2008. Recalling its roots, the foundation donated the remainder of the fund to its first recipient, the Children’s Center.

In a bad economy, few businesses hurt like landscapers, and Stutzman’s Nursery, Garden Center & Landscaping is no exception. After several years of struggle to pay bills on time and maintain proper insurance, at the beginning of March the Village issued Stutzman’s an order to vacate the Village-owned property on U.S. 68 north.

While the turbulent economic climate has affected all regions of the country, some municipalities are faring better than others. So far, Yellow Springs seems to be one of the relatively fortunate towns, as most of the largest employers in Yellow Springs report overall stability, even as they face the coming year with caution.

Illustrating how money circulates through small economies, area contractors can often be found downtown on early weekday mornings and around the lunch hour. When local property owners support local contractors, the contractors in turn support downtown merchants, whether it’s a few extra parts from the hardware store or lunch from the deli.

Amidst a national economic recession that has led to job loss, lower housing values and less-accessible consumer credit, all contractors surveyed in recent interviews were looking at creative ways to stay afloat. While many felt Yellow Springs is spared of the gravest economic fallout, each has encountered economic ripples in some aspect of their business.

In a village that has seen five retail shops close in the last six months, it is no small feat to keep a business thriving, especially during a recession. A sampling of business owners interviewed last week agreed for the most part that trade has been slow this whole past year, and some have been hit by 10 to 25 percent losses over the past few months.